No big names among the two dozen shed from Eskimos pre-season roster

A lone hand is raised during a team huddle at the Edmonton Eskimos training camp held at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton on Monday, May 20, 2019.Larry Wong / Postmedia

Seventeen released, three retired, four suspended and 12 placed on the practice roster.

That’s the math the Edmonton Eskimos did Sunday to get from the 94 players they had at the end of training camp, to an active roster in time for the 2019 Canadian Football League regular season.

Plus, of course, however many bodies they pile onto an injured list or two ahead of Friday’s season-opener against the visiting Montreal Alouettes (7 p.m.).

“It’s the bad part of the business,” Eskimos head coach Jason Maas. “Ultimately, we have to live with those decisions as coaches, and Brock (Sunderland, general manager) making some hard decisions.

“But the players themselves, I thought they gave us everything they had and we’ve got to make those decisions and pick our team.”

This year, it’s the numbers that stick out when it comes to Edmonton’s post-camp roster, since the names of those released are far from recognizable.

But that doesn’t make it any easier for those who shared a jam-packed locker-room with them since May 18.

“As sad as it is, we know it’s a reality and the players know what they signed up for, the coaches know what we signed up for: The hard decisions and we have to make them,” Maas said. “But it’s also exciting because it’s the end of camp. You’re excited about the future of this organization because I like what I’ve seen for the past three weeks. I like how we’ve come together, I like how hard the guys are working and coming as one.

“I hate to see anybody go home, but ultimately, we all knew that was going to come. It’s just part of the business.”

Evaluations went right up until the final day of camp Thursday, as the Eskimos closed out the three-week grind with a situational scrimmage.

“There was a couple question marks,” Maas said at the time, shortly after breaking one final training-camp huddle. “Great effort all camp. We talked at the beginning, we wanted to be a close-knit group at the end of training camp, I think we accomplished that goal. We also said let everything be, as players we look at, on the field. Don’t let anything off the field get you out of here.

“So let’s become Eskimos and I thought they all did and I wanted to congratulate them on that. And then, it’s reality. We’re going from 97 down to 46 and 10, so they know the numbers. I told them the good thing is, there will be callbacks and if they want to keep playing football, they just keep their heads up and keep grinding.”

That goes for the ones who made the team too, of course, as the hard work is just beginning.

“This is the tough time of year when you’ve just built three weeks worth of relationships and seasoned culture. You’ve seen the locker-room come together and we’ve got to get rid of a bunch of guys,” said Eskimos long-snapper Ryan King. “So that’s always a tough thing to go through, but we all know that’s the business we play in and today is kind of one of those days where you just wish everyone the best of luck.”

As an eight-year veteran, King is part of a returning group that made a point of making up for the loss of some particularly strong leadership on both sides of scrimmage, given the off-season vacancies went right to the top of the depth chart with quarterback Mike Reilly and defensive captain J.C. Sherritt.

“The guys that came in that weren’t here last year, they definitely felt that right away,” King said. “We have a pretty deep culture, we’ve always had a very player-run locker-room. Having some major vets leave this off-season just opened the door for some new vets. For myself and the Calvin’s (McCarty, 13-year veteran) in the room, it’s pretty cool to see these new guys roll in and they don’t know it yet, but the whole locker-room is waiting for them to take control of it.

“Larry Dean and Trevor Harris have been two phenomenal leaders, walking into a room that they hadn’t been a part of and leading by example during the beginning of camp and now starting to lead by example vocally.”

The inaugural global player to be claimed by a CFL team when he went first overall to the Eskimos in the CFL-LDF (Liga de Football Americano Profesional) draft beat his new club to the news he will be sticking around.

“Thank God for allowing me to fulfill another dream,” Viamontes posted to Instagram in Spanish, as translated by Google. “Thanks to my family and my wife for always supporting me, thanks to LFA and CFL for believing in building bridges instead of walls.

“Thanks to the Edmonton Eskimos for giving me the honour to wear these colours. This is only the beginning.”

Fellow Mexican and Eskimos defensive back Jose Romero also made the practice squad, while linebacker Daniel Carrete was released. That leaves linebacker Maxime Rouyer, a native of France who played at McGill, in the global spot on the active roster.

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